Here's something to consider before you make an offer to a home seller without using a real estate agent. It's 100% legal to buy or sell real estate in Utah without a license, but there are some important considerations before proceeding. An investor was recently looking at a home for sale online who was frustrated with their real estate agent not sending them deals, and asked "So do I want to have my agent fill out the offer letter and pay him $8000 or attorney that probably costs me ~$600 or can I draft one myself (and have a title company hold the earnest money deposit)?" Here are my three main points:
1. Many real estate brokerages in Utah carry "errors and omissions" insurance, and if there is a lawsuit you will want to make sure to have that kind of protection regarding mistakes in the contract. An attorney will accomplish the same goal in this regard. It's also not unheard of for some agents to charge a flat fee just to write up the paperwork for both buyer and seller and keep out of the rest of the negotiations. That said, plenty of great investors never use an agent, but from the looks of things you'll probably make a lot of simple mistakes early on if you don't have a professional holding your hand through the process. That brings me to my next thought.
2. I get your frustration at not feeling like you're the #1 priority of your agent, but think of how this looks if you made two offers with him today but you're going to leave him out of this deal *on the same day.* I'm not saying that this is the agent for you, but if you want to thrive in the real estate game long term it would be hugely beneficial to get an agent on your "board of advisors," and one that will have your best interest in mind. You're not going to be getting the awesome off-market deals in your first few interactions with an agent, and this should be a relationship that lasts years. Factor that relationship equity in to your financial statement on this house and decide how you want to run your real estate business. This could be your chance to win the confidence of your agent and have him work for you for years to come.
3. You will likely have stronger negotiating power than the seller if you're being represented by an agent. I've represented plenty of buyers and helped them buy homes "for sale by owner," where the seller wasn't represented by an agent and I can pretty much steamroll them in negotiations. I will commonly make a request for the buyer that the seller just agrees to, where if they had an agent there would definitely be push back. A good agent - the right agent for you - will pay him/herself off just in contract negotiations, wether that's before or after you settle on a contract price.
